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LIBER II · CAPUT 4

OF ITS NATURE; WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED

OF ITS NATURE; WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
OF ITS NATURE; WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED · EDITORIAL PLATE II.4 · modern editorial plate
OF ITS NATURE; WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

equidem et consensu gentium moveor; namque et Graeci nomine ornamenti appellavere eum et nos a perfecta absolutaque elegantia mundum. caelum quidem haut dubie caelati argumento diximus, ut interpretatur M. Varro. adiuvat rerum ordo discripto circulo qui signifer vocatur in duodecim animalium effigies et per illas solis cursus congruens tot saeculis ratio.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

With respect to the name, I am influenced by the unanimous opinions of all nations. For what the Greeks, from its being ornamented, have termed κόσμος, we, from its perfect and complete elegance, have termed mundus. The name cœlum, no doubt, refers to its being engraven, as it were, with the stars, as Varro suggests. In confirmation of this idea we may adduce the Zodiac, in which are twelve figures of animals; through them it is that the sun has continued its course for so many ages.